The January tasting will be Chateau Musar vertical tasting
presented by Sandy Leckie

Sandy Leckie will be presenting our first tasting of 2012.
Chateau Musar was established by Gaston Hochar in 1930 in the Bakaa Valley, cradled between mountain ranges parallel to Lebanon’s Mediterranean coastline. Vines have been cultivated here for at least 6,000 years: the Phoenicians (seafaring ancestors of the modern Lebanese) were instrumental in bringing vines and wines from Byblos across to all of the areas around the Mediterranean.
Chateau Musar is now run by Gaston’s sons, producing white and red wines, and was the first Lebanon producer to achieve organic certification. Despite security issues vintages have been produced every year except 1976 and 1984 (and 1992 was declassified due to poor quality).
For those few of you who don’t know him - Sandy gave up the “day job” in 1994 to launch a second career as a wine educator. A long-term member and presenter at Charlemagne, he has not been here for three years – welcome back. He manages (with Lena Inger and Vivienne Franks, both regular visitors to Charlemagne) Wine Education Service, running a wide ranges of courses and events for wine lovers. Sandy is a judge at the International Wine Challenge and a regular member of Decanter Magazine’s tasting panel.